The Service Employees International Union has imposed a lifetime ban on the former president of its largest California local and ordered him to repay more than $1 million that it says he misappropriated from the labor organization.
SEIU President Andy Stern announced the actions Wednesday after reviewing the findings of an internal probe of Tyrone Freeman's spending practices as head of the 160,000-member United Long-Term Care Workers and a 30,000-member affiliated chapter that represent low-wage caregivers.
"It is tragic and unconscionable that a young leader with such great potential would violate not only the constitution of the international union, but the trust of his members," Stern said in a statement.
An attorney for Freeman, 39, issued a statement that said his client was "disappointed by Andy Stern's decision." Freeman had been a protege of Stern, who originally appointed him to the local position.
"Tyrone Freeman's career has been about helping workers and finding innovative ways to lift them out of poverty," said the statement from attorney Kelly Kramer. "His goal has always been to improve their lives."
The Times reported in August that the Los Angeles-based local and a related worker-training charity paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to home-based video and day-care services owned by Freeman's wife and mother-in-law, respectively. The local spent similar sums on a Four Seasons Resorts golf tournament, expensive restaurants, a Beverly Hills cigar lounge and a Hollywood talent agency.
Freeman is now the target of a federal criminal investigation.
The SEIU's inquiry included hearings conducted by former California Supreme Court Justice Joseph Grodin. His report to Stern said Freeman had engaged in a pattern of financial malpractice and self-dealing, according to the SEIU.
In its statement, the union did not specify which payments it has ordered Freeman to return. But the internal investigation, overseen by former California Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp, alleged that the spending that benefited Freeman's relatives could not be justified.
Freeman's local paid the video company owned by his wife more than $650,000, according to federal records and the SEIU. The worker-training charity paid his mother-in-law's day-care service more than $90,000 annually for several years, records show.
The SEIU examination also found that Freeman improperly directed the affiliated California United Homecare Workers and a housing nonprofit to pay him about $2,500 a month each.
